Gilmore Girls, season 7, disc 1
We had heard that this final season of GG takes a quality nosedive due to a lack of Palladinos. This wasn't bad, but it was missing something that I haven't homed in on.
I Am Legend
I had read the meh reviews, but I like sci-fi apocalypse, and Will Smith can be entertaining, and what the hell. On viewing, both M and I agree, its deeply stupid parts mar the whole. Not terrible, but not an experience for willful repetition.
Gilmore Girls, season 7, disc 2
This is where the show gets the worst of all fates... mediocre. Not bad, just miserably average.
Samurai Champloo, disc 4
Good, but Mugen's background story was confusing.
G.I. Joe Resolute
I watched this about three times, studying it. It was built for the Web, in segments, meaning that in addition to telling one large coherent story, it had to tell 7 or 8 coherent miniature stories within that had their own matryoshka doll structure and cliffhangers. The initial setup is so fast and choppy you really don't know what's happening the first time you watch it, but the rest of it flows well enough. It makes perfect sense that they got a comic book writer to do this (Warren Ellis). He's already wired to do this.
The anime stylings were gorgeous, and from the extras I learned a new term for this kind of IP: "military fantasy." Well done, lads!
Sherlock Holmes
Much better than I thought it would be! It was more of a reverse caper movie than a mystery, but man, mysteries are dang hard to do well in film. This was just fine. I like a kinetic self-absorbed genius Sherlock Holmes. And I like most things Guy Richie does. So not only did I not mind the liberties taken, I enjoyed them.
Avatar
Here's my tip from my Lucasfilm days: When advanced press spends a lot of time talking about the technical wizardry behind a movie, it's probably because that's the movie's strong suit. M hated this movie so hard, but I thought it was ok, except that every single thing that happened was as predictable as gravity. There were some fun comparison to Aliens--particularly matching Carter Burke up with Parker Selfridge.
Eh? Separated at birth? Eh? Eh?
3 comments:
I'm not sure I've ever really understood "predictable" as a criticism for a movie or book. I mean, aren't all but a handful of books and movies predictable? Surely even in this post-Shyamalan world, surprising twists are still just one way to tell a story.
I agree with you about Sherlock Holmes, but I was an easy sell for Richie on this one. I've never really liked Holmes except as an archetype, and thus, like any archetype you can mess around with the details all you want to and still come up with something good(for me). Plus, has being a stickler for strict accuracy to source material ever made anyone happier? I think I've only ever seen it make people sad.
Maybe I'm using "predictable" here as short-hand for a larger idea that includes laziness. Regardless, I thought the formula in Avatar was unusually bald, and more dismal for it. I agree, predictability isn't inherently bad, but there are better and worse ways to get the rifle on the wall in the first act.
Good point about the riffing on archetypes. I think, however, that there are a small number of ways to mess with an archetype well, and a large number of ways to mess with one dreadfully. I like that this one was in the small category.
As a counterpoint to your other comment, a healthy respect for (but not a slavishness to) textual accuracy made the LotR movies better, and me happier!
When I implied that no one was made happier by being a stickler I meant as a viewer, not a creator. That's a whole different kettle of fish, I think, and a much more complicated issue.
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